


Activate the Heart

by OnyxDay



Series: As It Should Be [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Wolf, Episode AU: 2006 Xmas The Runaway Bride, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2020-09-07 12:10:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20309284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnyxDay/pseuds/OnyxDay
Summary: The Huon particles inside Donna drew her into the TARDIS, but she's not the only one with their energy flowing through her veins.Rose Tyler is back, but it's not all smooth sailings being pulled across the Void.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A rewrite of my old fanfiction.net fic of the same title.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter to start with, but don't worry, they'll get longer as we go.

It had been nearly three months since she had last seen the Doctor on that dreaded beach in Norway. That final moment played in her dreams constantly, repeating itself over and over again. Sometimes they were good dreams, dreams where he finally finished that sentence, where he found a way back to her. But most of her dreams of late had been more like nightmares. Her friends and family taunting her with his final words, throwing the fact that he didn't love her in her face.

She hated those dreams.

Which might explain why she's currently walking down the street way past curfew in a Cardiff that is not quite her own, hunting aliens. At least that part hasn't changed that much in her life. Maybe she's not running through time and space in a big blue box, but she's still Rose Tyler: Defender of the Earth.

_Still_, she thinks, carrying a large fresh steak, _could do with a not-blue bucket_.

It wasn't the bucket she wanted, but rather the pinstriped alien that came with the memory.

"Here, Hoix-y, Hoix-y, Hoix-y, got a nice juicy steak for ya," she called out, entering a dimly lit alley that just screamed horror movie set. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" she sang out, waving the steak about to hopefully attract the stray alien.

She had been working at Torchwood Cardiff almost since they returned from Bad Wolf Bay, finding the location refreshing compared to London. She had never been to this Cardiff with the Doctor, had no memories of running down the streets hand in hand with him here. This wasn't the Cardiff where they almost died together in a basement. Not the Cardiff where they stopped Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen from blowing the Rift sky-high. And unlike London, they had never stopped a Cyberman uprising here. Also unlike London, she got actually to go out into the field here, not stuck in an office doing paperwork like Pete would have liked to keep her.

Though he might have had the right of it, keeping her locked up inside. Jeopardy friendly, she was.

Which was proven again when the alien she had been hunting popped up in front of her, all snarling teeth and sharp claws. Rose, adrenaline pumping through her veins, quickly threw the steak away from herself, hoping the Hoix would follow the scent rather than attack her. Luckily, she was right and the alien scrambled after the meat, giving her the perfect opportunity to tranquilize it for easy transport.

She was about to radio her team for pick up when a strange golden glow filled the alley, accompanied by a burning, wrenching sensation in her solar plexus. Rose gasped as she looked down and saw the glow emanating from herself. The pull got stronger and so did the burn, spreading out from her center to every extremity, burning her up from the inside as she felt every atom of her body try to rip itself apart.

She couldn't help the piercing scream that was ripped from her throat moments before she blacked out.


	2. Chapter One

When Rose came to, she was being cradled in someone's arms while people shouted around her.

"Quiet down, all that shoutin' 's doing my head in," she groaned, shifting as much as she could without falling out of the arms holding her.

"Rose?"

Rose's eyes snapped open, then blinked rapidly to adjust to the sudden light, before focusing on the devastatingly familiar face hovering above her.

"Hello," she whispered.

"Hello."

"Hello!"

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Captain Jack Harkness said, winking down at her. Rose laughed as Jack finally let her down, holding onto him as she got her feet under her at first before wrapping her arms around him in a much more deliberate embrace.

"Oh my god, Jack!" she gasped, pushing away from him so she could look him more squarely in the face. "How are you here?"

"How am I here?" Jack questioned. "How are _you_ here? Last I saw of you was your name on a list of the dead, next thing I know you're falling out of the Rift!"

"What'd you mean I fell out of the Rift?" Rose didn't want to hope, almost couldn't let herself even consider it, but a look around at the confused faces of her Torchwood team - no recognition in their eyes as they stared at her - and the few but glaringly obvious changes to the Hub were all the confirmation she needed. She was somehow back in her original universe, no matter how impossible the Doctor claimed it to be.

She should really stop listening to him when he said something was impossible.

"Erm, not to interrupt," Gwen interrupted, "but d'you mind filling in the rest of us on how you know each other?"

"Jack and I traveled with the Doctor together-"  
"I traveled with Rose and the Doctor for a while-"

They spoke over each other, then paused and looked at one another, giving each other fond smiles.

"Maybe it's best if we sit down and I can tell the whole story," Rose suggested.

Everyone migrated to the conference room, Rose and Jack sitting on one side, Gwen, Owen, and Tosh sitting opposite. Ianto fluttered around making everyone tea then sat next to Jack at the head of the table, right in between the two groups. Rose slowly sipped her tea, taking a moment to gather herself before beginning her tale.

"My name is Rose Tyler, I used to travel with the Doctor - that's how I met Jack - and for the past seven months I've been living on a parallel Earth," Rose started, figuring she should get that bit out of the way first. "I'm sure you all remember the battle of Canary Wharf?" Everyone nodded, Ianto looking especially grief-stricken. "Well, I was right in the middle of it all, me and the Doctor. The Cybermen were coming through from the parallel Earth I've been living in, one that the Doctor and I had accidentally ended up in not long before. They were getting through using a breach made by this thing called a Void ship. 's a ship that can travel through the Void, the empty space between parallel worlds, and it was carrying a prison ship full of Daleks - those, um, pepper pot looking things with plungers on 'em. Anyway, the Doctor found a way to get rid of them by reversing the flow of the breach, sucking in everything that had passed through the Void. Which included me, the Doctor, and the members of the parallel Torchwood that came to help. Including the parallel version of my dad. He was running their version of Torchwood and he got together a team to cross over to this side of the breach and help stop the Cybermen coming through. Dad left, taking my mum and my mate Mickey with him to the other Earth."

"The Doc sent you away again, didn't he?" It wasn't really a question.

"Yeah, but I came back," Rose said, barely managing a smile. "The Doctor and I managed to get the breach open, but we were both covered in Void-stuff. It's a sort of, um, background radiation you get from traveling through the Void. Harmless unless you've got a breach pulling all the Void-stuff back inside it. But the Doctor and me, we had these clamps to hold onto once we got the breach open. We should've been fine," Rose paused to wipe away the tears starting to fall. "My lever slipped. The breach was closing and there were still thousands of Daleks and Cybermen on this side. So I let go of my clamp and pulled the lever back up."

Jack rested a hand on her shoulder, squeezing tightly as she struggled to finish the sorry tale.

"The pull was too strong. I slipped and fell toward the Void. But at the last minute my dad came back, grabbed me, and took me to the parallel Earth," she breathed in shakily and wiped her eyes again. "The walls between parallel worlds are supposed to be sealed, making travel between them impossible. I'm not sure how I got here, I don't really remember much until waking up in Jack's arms."

Jack smirked and winked at her, "Not the first time that's happened, eh, Rosie?"

Rose can't help the smile that creeps on her face. Oh, how she missed him.

"What about you, Jack?" she asks. "Last time I saw you was on the Game Station in the year 200,100, so how'd you end up in early 21st century Cardiff?"

"Tried to jump back to the 21st century with this," he said, holding up the wrist that held his Vortex Manipulator, "but something went wrong and I ended up in the 19th and the stupid thing broke down. Been living on the slow path ever since, trying to catch up with you and the Doctor. Settled here, right on the Rift since I figured you'd have to stop here at some point to refuel, but I haven't had any luck so far."

"But, Jack," Rose said hesitantly, "that would make you over three hundred years old."

"And looking good on it, too," Jack responded with a wink. Rose couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. "That's something I need to ask the Doctor about, something happened to me on the Gamestation that made it so I can't die. Not permanently, anyway."

Rose felt her heart break for the man she had once considered her best friend, her brother in all but blood, and all he must have been through. She could see it in his eyes, now that she was looking - that haunted look that she knows so well from icy blue and warm brown eyes, so much older than either face she's known. She never expected to see it in Jack's eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Jack."

Jack smiled sadly at her and shook his head, "Nothing to apologize for, Rosie. Let's focus on getting you back to that Time Lord of yours so we can both get some answers.

"Um, Rose?" Jack and Rose both turned to look at Gwen, who along with the rest of the Torchwood team had been mostly silent during their exchange, but was now staring at Rose's hand. "Are you meant to be glowing like that?"

Rose looked down at her hands and saw the same golden glow she remembered from Pete's world just before she passed out.

"This is what happened last time," she gasped, her eyes shooting up and locking on Jack's frightened ones. "Help me!"

Before anyone could react, the glow encompassed her completely and she was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! This chapter was giving me a lot of trouble, I couldn't quite get it to where I wanted it to go. I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, but it's as close as I can get it.


	3. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter accidentally got deleted just before I was ready to post it and then real life got hectic as I was trying to rewrite it, so sorry for the delay.
> 
> At least now that I'm stuck at home I'll have more time to write. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these trying times, all my love to you and your families!

There was a song in her mind, aching and familiar, and it swirled and danced around her like a soft caress. It made Rose think of her mother singing her lullabies as a child, the way Jackie would brush her hair back from her face as she crooned softly, Rose's nightlight casting them both in a soft teal glow. That same glow pulsed in her mind along with the song and there was strange groaning keeping the beat underneath the soft hum of the tune. It was all so familiar but in her half-lucid state Rose couldn't remember _why_ that sound both comforted her and broke her heart.

There were other sounds, below the song, the soft murmur of voices and the quiet clang of someone running over metal crating, and they were just as familiar and heartbreaking.

Suddenly there was a rush of cold - not air, just cold - and along with it the burnt metal smell of space. The sharp and familiar smell was enough to rouse Rose into consciousness, and as she opened her eyes she was greeted with the familiar sight of the TARDIS grating and the gentle hum of the engines. Everything was still stiff and muted, but when she turned her face she could just make out the Doctor's silhouette as he stood in the open doorway. There was someone else beside him, a woman with bright red hair and a wedding dress on. Rose tried to call out to them, but her voice wouldn't work and she found herself drifting again as the song in her mind grew louder.

The TARDIS lurched into motion, dragged away from whatever cosmic vista the Doctor and his (new?) companion had been observing, and Rose could hear her distress as they were pulled back by whoever was summoning her.

Rose fell back into the blackness and the song enveloped her in its cool embrace. She now recognized it as the TARDIS's melody, the one that she had fallen asleep to during her two years on the ship, the one that blazed through her mind when she looked into her heart, the one that she had last heard on that dreadful day at Canary Wharf.

Something warm and golden flows through her mind, lighting up parts of it Rose hadn't realized were there and all of a sudden Rose could _feel it_, the way the ship traveled through the time streams, the never-ending stretch of time and space spread out before her like an infinite river and if Rose stepped just right she could traverse it with ease, but if her feet slipped she would be pulled away by the current. The mint julep scent of the 1920s drifted past and she found herself gravitating toward it until the harsh pull of her center sent her and the ship crashing towards Christmas, 2007. There was a pinch and then Rose felt them jump space a few hundred yards. The song receded as the TARDIS parked herself and Rose was left floating in the black of her mind until a shock jolted her awake.

Rose gasped as she looked around, taking in the wonderfully familiar sight of the console room, the warm teal flow of the time rotor as it reflected off the coral struts and metal grating. Rose levered herself up, glad that this time she could move, and realized she had ended up hidden behind one of the coral pillars and nearly underneath the grating. It was no wonder the Doctor nor the woman saw her, tucked away as she had been.

Rose slowly picked herself up and nearly stumbled as she made her way to the door, catching herself on the nearest piece of coral and patting it as the hum of the TARDIS pitched up in worry.

"I'm alright, Old Girl," Rose murmured and then giggled. "God, I sound like him, don't I?"

Rose managed to reach the door without stumbling again and had barely stepped outside before she was snatched up by a pair of the same robot Santa pilot fish that she had encountered last Christmas. She managed to latch the door behind her, but the robots were quick to grab her arms as she struggled against them. One had a hand over her mouth, preventing her from calling out to the Doctor, who she could see just down the hall from them. The ginger bride was with him and there was another set of pilot fish that quickly nabbed her as well, leaving the Doctor to ramble to himself, having not noticed either of their snatchings.

Rose kept struggling as the pilot fish hauled her and the ginger woman away from the Doctor and through a set of doors into a large laboratory of some sort. One side of the room held all sorts of tubes and vats full of a bubbling clear liquid and as they passed them Rose felt a sort of resonance between herself, the tubes, and the other woman. The other side of the room held a large pit of some sort, an even larger web suspended above it, and a bright red humanoid-spider-like alien.

"Ah, the lovely bride," the alien hissed, smiling down (or at least, Rose thought she was smiling) at Donna, but then her multitude of eyes shifted over to Rose and her frown deepened. "Who is the spare?"

The pilot fish holding her released her mouth and Rose jerked her head away as soon as she could.

"I am Captain Rose Tyler of Torchwood and I request parlay under Convention Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation," Rose put every ounce of confidence she had ever felt behind her words, backed by her training and the knowledge she had amassed whilst traveling with the Doctor, standing her ground against the giant spider alien. It still wasn't enough.

The alien laughed down at her and sneered, "The Empress of the Racnoss does not acknowledge any 'Shadow Proclamation', my funny little flower. Roboforms, bind the women to the web! The bride will join her groom to become my key and the little flower shall bear witness to the birth of my new empire before joining my Christmas feast!"

Rose had the feeling that the Empress of the Racnoss wasn't inviting her to sit down and eat a nice Christmas ham with her.

She and the other woman were hauled up and strapped into the web, next to a squirming man in a tux that Rose guessed was the 'groom' the Racnoss had been referring to earlier, though by the way he and the bride were glaring at each other she got the feeling the wedding was off. If they even get out of this, but that wasn't something Rose wanted to be thinking about. Especially since she knew the Doctor was nearby and on the case. If there was one thing she believed in above all else, it was the Doctor.

"Sorry, I didn't catch your names, I'm Rose," Rose greeted them with a smile.

"Are you thick?" the groom sneered. "We're suspended above a bottomless pit and what, you want to exchange names like it's a Sunday picnic?"

"Shut up, Lance," the bride spat, glaring at him before turning back to Rose with a slightly more pleasant set to her face. "I'm Donna, by the way."

"I'd say it's nice to meet you, but well," Rose looked down at their webbing and then to the gaping chasm below them, "the circumstances could be better."

"How'd you even end up in all this anyway, Blondie," Lance asked.

"Oh, I'm jeopardy friendly," she answers with a glib smile.

"My golden couple, together at last," the Empress of the Racnoss hissed from below them, drawing their attention down. "And the lost flower here as witness to your awful wedded life. Tell me, do you wish to be released?"

"Yes!" all three of them yelled as one.

"You're supposed to say 'I do'," the Empress commanded.

Lance's lip curled and he looked as if he was about to protest then suddenly reconsidered. He looked over at Donna, and with his face still contracted in disgust, he spat out an, "I do."

"I do," Donna reluctantly responded.

"And the bridesmaid?" the Empress asked, her multitude of eyes trained now on Rose.

"I do," Rose agreed, her voice stronger than the other two as she stared the Racnoss down.

"I don't!" the Empress laughed. "Activate the particles! Purge every last one!"

Heat surged within Rose, the burning sensation building within her core and spreading outward along her limbs as golden light filled her vision. It took her a moment to notice that she wasn't the only one glowing, Donna and Lance burning gold alongside her. But as the burn through her veins reached its fever pitch while Donna and Lance's lights spilled into the pit below them, Rose's spread to her mind, overwhelming her senses and tumbling her into a black void.


End file.
